King and Messiah: America's most popular baby names

IF YOU thought the Aussie baby name list was weird, just wait until you see the American one - it seems they've been influenced by everything from Game of Thrones to The Hunger Games to Twilight and the Bible.

But talk about high expectations for a newborn: King and Messiah are among the fastest-rising baby names for American boys.

They're just a little behind Major, which was the boy's name that jumped the most spots on the Social Security Administration's annual list of popular baby names.

Typically, says Laura Wattenberg, author of The Baby Name Wizard and founder of Babynamewizard.com, "You don't get a lot of Messiahs. You can have a lot more Majors."

"I have no doubt Major's rising popularity as a boy's name is in tribute to the brave members of the U.S. military, and maybe we'll see more boys named General in the future," said acting Social Security Commissioner Carolyn W. Colvin.

It seems Americans are paying tribute to the their favourite literary characters as well - Gale (as seen in The Hunger Games) is the second fastest growing name for boys, with Jacob (Twilight) topping the list as the most popular boy's name.

For girls, the fastest growing name was Arya, which will sound familiar to GOT fans. Isabella (also from Twilight) continues to be popular, coming in at number three on the list.

Wattenberg said Americans have long given their children "aggrandizing names." She noted that Noble and General were on the list of popular boys' names for much of the 20th century, though neither ever cracked the top 100.

"We've pretty much run out of presidential names, all the Jeffersons and Jacksons and Madisons, so we're moving on to the aristocracy, I guess, or to the military."

Jennifer Moss, author of The One-in-a-Million Baby Name Book and founder of Babynames.com, says she discourages parents from giving children "expectation names, like Justice and Chastity."

"We feel that it kind of puts an undue pressure on the child when you use those kinds of grandiose or purity names," Moss said.

Chastity was in the top 1,000 for more than two decades before dropping off the list in 1994. Justice was on the list in 1880 but then fell off for more than 100 years. The name reappeared in 1992 and was No. 518 last year.

The Social Security Administration's website provides lists of the top 1,000 baby names for each year, dating to 1880. The top baby names that year were John and Mary. John is now No. 28 and Mary has fallen to No. 123 - the lowest ever for both names.

The list, which also includes top baby names by state, draws millions of viewers. The agency hopes that people go to the website to see the baby names and stay to learn about other services.

Perhaps next year we'll see lots of little Katniss and Tyrion's running around?